Virus-hit St. Tammany Parish Clerk Website Returns to Normalcy

The computer systems at St. Tammany Parish's Clerk of Court, Louisiana (USA) have reportedly been infested by a virus. The virus attack also shut down its official website.

According to Malise Prieto, St. Tammany Parish's Clerk of Court, something suspicious was being observed since January 02, 2009, as reported by North Shore Updates on January 08, 2008. Clerks noticed that dozens of software alerts started popping-up on their monitors. The alerts stated of a virus trying to break in their systems. Despite the best efforts of software experts to block it, the virus affected the computer systems severely on January 13, 2009.

Prieto further told that the source of virus couldn't be detected yet. As per the security experts, it was a PC-based worm, which managed to trick the Norton antivirus software of the office and entered stealthily into the system, thereby infecting it. It is noteworthy that an AVG antivirus software had been installed by the clerk's office with the assistance of Parish government, which worked in collaboration with Norton to fix the problem.

Meanwhile, the officials came out with the fact that only older computers were hit by the virus while those purchased recently before the holidays remained safe.

Moreover, people making queries related to the issue were answered via an automated voicemail message. The message stated that the clerk's office had met with a work station-based virus. It further expressed the belief that its data had not been compromised and that no threat was posed at its users.

The message added that out of caution, services of the website had been disabled for the time-being. This message was reported when the IT experts were investigating the case. The problem has been resolved now.

According to the reports, it was around 6:30 p.m. on January 10, 2009 when the Clerk of Court declared the return of virus-hit system, following a marathon round of forensic investigations. Prieto announced that they had successfully overcome the issue, reported St. Tammany News on January 14, 2009.

Related article: Virus Infects Through USB Drives

» SPAMfighter News - 1/27/2009